CITY OF RIVERSIDE: CLEVER AS THE FOX, BUT NON THE NEDERLANDER!

TMC’S PREDICTION IS THAT THE FOX THEATRE WILL BE OUT OF BUSINESS BY JULY 2012, BECAUSE THEY WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PAY THE 2 MILLION DOLLAR YEARLY DEFICIT ON OPERATING COST. THIS IS BECAUSE THE CITY SHOULD NOT BE IN BUSINESS OF DOING BUSINESS. THEY SHOULD NOT BE IN THE ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS, THE RESTAURANT BUSINESS, THE FUTURE HOTEL BUSINESS, PROPERTY MANAGMENT BUSINESS AND REAL ESTATE BUSINESS. THEY SHOULD BE IN THE BUSINESS AS A GOVERNMENT AGENCY, OF FIXING OUR SEWERS AND REPAIRING OUR POT HOLES! WHO KNOWS, H.J. “JOE” ZIVNAK MAY BE ABLE TO THEN PICK UP THE FOX THEATRE FOR A COUPLE OF MIL, BECAUSE THAT MY FREINDS, IS HOW THE CITY ROLLS….

According to Brad Hudson’s planned Guccism for Riverside was to transform Downtown into a major entertainment mecca. But if that was the plan, what is Downtown Riverside going to do now that the New York Style Theatre is non-the-neder? What are we going to do without Nederlander? Well, the City of Riverside figured it was a format problem, therefore the new idea is that the format needed to be change according to the geographics. Well, neder mind, why didn’t we just do that to begin with? Should we have just kept it local? It does appears that’s exactly what the prior owner of the Fox, H.J. “Joe” Zivnak, wanted to do until it was taken by eminent domain by the usual suspects at City Hall. At the time, the then Riverside City Council stated the current owner had failed to restore the historic vaudeville stage and cinema and turn it into a cutting-edge performing arts center. Well, neder-the-less, it is what it is now, a cutting-edge government runned underperforming arts center. The next confusing question, is the unreachable Nederlander really out of Riverside?Not at all, says Fox General Manager Bill Malone. “It’s just a new relationship”, and “they’re (Nederlander) are affiliated with McCoy Rigby Entertainment”. Malone says he will now pick and choose from Nederlanders’s traveling shows. Won’t have to take them all. This sounds sort of like ordering theatre tickets from the internet, you can pick and choose the tickets you want. Well, I guess there is an internet site where you can pick and choose traveling shows from a list, then add to the cart. But further, did it ever occur to management why so many Nederlander shows were being cancel? He goes on to say, “together we can conclude from experience what will be viable.” But the delusional new relationship is non-existent, and far from viable, consider the yearly 1 million dollar deficit to the taxpayer in operating cost since The Fox Theatre opened.

Again, as written in the Riverside Outlook on Page 2, the statement that the City of Riverside is bringing in Nederlander affiliate McCoy Rigby Entertainment from La Mirada on board to the Fox Theatre is also misleading. The term “affiliation” brings about the understanding that McCoy Rigby is somehow connected with Nederlander as a business associate, or further, that Nederlander has an interest in McCoy Rigby. Neder is true! McCoy Rigby does not have an interest in Nederlander or the reverse. But as I was told from McCoy Rigby per phone conversation is that they work together as colleagues, and will use one or the other as a referral if the other decides neder to take a gig. Therefore, McCoy Rigby was more of a business referral per Nederlander, if that’s what really happened. So, now let’s stop with the affiliation part and the denial, Nederlander really is gone, but good try on the spin.

Nederlander officials also told the city they were losing money in Riverside, though they didn’t provide figures, according Assistant City Manager Deanna Lorson. But what Deanna didn’t tell you was that The Fox Theatre was losing money on operations since it opened and the very night she walked the red carpet of the grand opening. But here are the figures according to the Annual Budget of 2010-2011. Malone calls it a primary win for the Fox and a secondary win for Nederlander. And let’s not forget there is a third win, too, because this is truly a win,win situation, that is, replacing Nederlander with Orange County’s McCoy Rigby Entertainment. Well Malone….if you really look at the whole picture the Fox Theatre is also not winning when it is losing money. Nederlander left because is was losing money. And McCoy Rigby Entertainment won’t know just yet if it is a win, till they tell us they’re making money. We realize the city meant neder to be misleading, but neder-the-less, you say tomato, I say tomahto, why don’t we just call the whole thing off? Well Nederlander did, and they meandered right out of Riverside, but neder mind the incidentals!

Well, an article isn’t an article without an insult or two regarding Riverside. Emil Marzullo, economic development chief for San Bernardino, which owns the California Theatre, says Nederlander may have “overestimated this market area. I see this area as an immature theater market. Not that the people are immature, but they’re not used to going to theater here.” Thanks for that analytical synopsis, Emil. But we could have also said Nederlander was just giving Riverside a trial run, afterall, they are Nederlander! And Riverside is Riverside, not Neanderthal Land!

Well neder mind the above, the point is they should have kept it local and simple to begin with, and their is no reason why the Fox Theatre should have some sort of entertainment venue every day, especially during the summer.

COME ONE, COME ALL, GOVERNMENT ENTERTAINMENT AT ITS BEST SINCE NEDERLANDER LEFT, THE GOVERNMENT HIT PARADE BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE TAXPAYER… THE MAYOR AND I, BYE BYE BRADLEY, THE PHANTOM OF SEVENTH FLOOR, THE BLUE COUNCIL GROUP, DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS, SINGING IN THE SEWER, SEVEN COUNCILS FOR SEVEN CONTRACTORS, MISS HART GON…..IT IS A BETTER VENUE!

UPDATE:07/20/2011: The theatrics continues when drama king Fox manager William P. Malone told party guests that he is in “partnership” with McCoy Rigby on the Fox’s Broadway season and that he approached the couple to step in after the Nederlander Organization closed its Riverside operation. This is quite different than what was quoted last time, when he stated it was just a new relationship, insinuating that Nederlander never really left, because they are “affiliated” with McCoy Rigby Entertainment, which of course, is not true.

I wish the Fox good sailing. I wish the City government would get out of private enterprise businesss. Socialism. Management chosen by a private enterprise organization would bring back some of the historic pride of Riverside. The Mission Inn was not built by government. Since 1955 Riverside government has spent (invested) hundreds of millions of dollars trying to push water uphill. Government is the business of mile square. Services to support all those government employees, hundreds of millions in payroll should be the quest of planning for downtown. Bringing a night life to milesquare might be desirable for some but that should be the agenda of private enterprise. Riverside City Government should not be in any business that competes with the private sector. That is unfair competition and discourages economic progress. -Ron, PE Commenter

UNKNOWINGLY PUSHING THE ENVELOPE, KEEP CONNECTED WITH TMC, RATED RIVERSIDE’S MOST “SLANDEROUS” AND MEZZSPELLED, “MISSPELLED” AND “OPINIONATED” BLOG SITE! TMC IS NOW EXCLUSIVELY ON FILE WITH THE COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE’S DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE, AND PROSSIBLY POSSIBLY ON FILE WITH THE CITY OF RIVERSIDE’S POTENTIAL SLAPP SUIT LIST… AGAIN, THANK-YOU COMMUNITY OF RIVERSIDE AND THE CITY OF RIVERSIDE EMPLOYEE’S FOR YOUR SUPPORT! COMMENTS ALWAYS WELCOMED, ESPECIALLY SPELL CHECKERS! EMAIL ANONYMOUSLY WITH YOUR DIRT! THIRTYMILESCORRUPTION@HOTMAIL.COM BY THE WAY, COMMENTS ALWAYS WELCOMED!

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Sorry, but the prior owner of the Fox was a crook. He stole the organ and other things out of it, and had no way of raising the money necessary to restore the theater properly. I attended one of the fundraising events by “Friends of the Fox” and their goal for the year was to raise $100,000. At that rate they would have had enough money to start work sometime around 2050. The condition of the theater was so bad – the bathrooms were worse than port-a-potties – that I was surprised the City game them a permit to have the event.

Taking the theater from the previous owner was a good call. He got to cry all the way to the bank and enjoy a huge tax break to boot.

I agree that the Fox has been mismanaged. Why did the City put Malone in charge, when he had done such a poor job at the Municipal Auditorium? Jeff Davis made a lot of noise about this, and then backed down. Now he backs off of becoming Mayor Pro Tem. He’s just a lot of hot air who likes to make noise and avoid action.

I fully concur about Davis. He’s all talk, and no action. After his campaign to unearth all that’s evil in Riverside; it’s been two years now. Where’s that list of evil deeds and Davis-led reforms? What a bag of hot air. He got an asian event for his wife, which was apparently the price to buy him off. Count him as Sold. So much so that he passes on his turn to be Mayor pro tem at the most important time in our city’s history in at least a decade. Did I say that he passed? Oops. I meant he was passed over by his colleagues who wsee him for the loser that he is.

I think you’re both being too hard on Davis. He is, after all, just one person and the forces alined against him are many. I’ve talked to him and when he has asked for documents, they dumped mountains on him. I would challenge anyone to try to wade through the paper snow. I think what is truly needed is a thorough audit by a municipal forensic CPA. This is a very specialized field and not just any CPA or Firm has the expertise to perform this task. It takes some one who has worked in that field to know where and how they would cheat.

I’m sure that Hudson and other city insiders have been looking for leverage on Davis. If they can’t just buy his support, I’m sure they are on the look out for ways to blackmail him into submission.

I’m rooting for the guy as I find him to be a breath of freash air. We should all be rooting for him.

At least he’s reading the backup which most of them don’t because you can see them pore through it on their iPads during the meetings.

What Davis and another brave soul or two need to do is make the necessary phone calls to D.C. and Sacramento for outside probes. City Hall should be sealed off by the authorities while they serve subpoenas as has happened in other cities.

That’s the best thing elected government peeps can do to restore trust in the government that fires people for telling and then hires “independent” firms to clear itself at our expense.